Live Strong in the Wilderness-Chapter 273: It’s Snowing

Xu Yi and Lu Ke discovered that the addition of ginseng to the originally slightly fishy leopard meat completely erased the odor.

Their main meal was still potatoes, and without soup, eating only potatoes could easily cause choking.

Each had a big bowl of leopard meat soup, which didn’t give the same warm feeling as after eating antler.

So, Xu Yi felt a bit more at ease.

After dinner, Lu Ke cleaned up the dishes and took them for washing.

Xu Yi sat in front of the fire, adding some firewood.

Tonight was expected to be a fairly quiet night.

However, shortly after, Lu Ke started working with clay, saying they needed to make some pottery to store salt and pickled vegetables in the future.

It wasn’t right to let Lu Ke work alone, so Xu Yi joined her in working with the clay.

Tonight, there wasn’t much activity; it was a relatively peaceful night.

Except that the temperature kept dropping, even their breath was turning to white mist.

"It’s snowing."

"Really, it’s snowing, is winter coming so suddenly?"

"Isn’t this island located near the equator, how is it snowing now?"

"What heavy snow, it was so hot at noon, this weather is really bizarre."

"I wonder if some groups will be eliminated, with such heavy snow, if it continues into tomorrow night, they might not be able to go out."

Xu Yi and Lu Ke stepped outside, watching the heavy snow in the sky.

The sudden snowfall left Xu Yi and Lu Ke bewildered.

"Let’s stop for now, and go upstairs." Xu Yi suggested, as sitting by the fire was still quite chilly due to the dramatic drop in temperature.

"Did your feet get frostbitten, should we exchange for a pair of shoes for you?" Lu Ke glanced at Xu Yi’s feet, asking with concern, as the antelope skin hadn’t dried yet and couldn’t be tanned.

"No need, it’s been so many days, I’m somewhat accustomed to it, we can consider it tomorrow." Although they had 602 points now, Xu Yi was reluctant to use them to exchange for shoes.

Winter had arrived, and the coming days would likely be hard to endure.

Therefore, points couldn’t be used recklessly.

"Then I’ll make you some gaiters first, we have some rabbit fur to sew a pair." Lu Ke said and went upstairs.

Xu Yi followed her up, and once inside, Lu Ke handed him a fur coat.

After putting on the fur coat, Xu Yi started building a fire.

With snow outside, the house was terribly cold without a fire.

While building the fire, Xu Yi considered whether to make a heated kang, so it would be warm to sleep at night.

"Xu Yi, let me measure your foot." Lu Ke said and took off Xu Yi’s shoes.

"Your feet are so cold and red, are you sure it’s okay? Will you get frostbite?" Lu Ke asked with concern, her touch on Xu Yi’s feet felt like touching ice.

"It’s okay, once you finish sewing the gaiters, it will be better. I can warm my feet by the fire now." Xu Yi laughed, feeling it wasn’t that severe.

After so much time, he was somewhat used to it.

Lu Ke nodded and began sewing immediately. The quicker she finished, the sooner Xu Yi could wear them.

Although there were two open windows on the second floor, it wasn’t as cold after closing the door.

The advantage here was the lack of wind; while the temperature was low, it was bearable.

With the firepit, the room temperature rose immediately. Along with wearing fur coats, it felt quite warm, even Xu Yi’s feet began to warm up.

"Sister, the snow came so suddenly, it just started like that. It was around thirty degrees at noon, and now it’s below zero." Wang Jin sat by the fire, also wearing a fur coat, albeit a bit bulky like a blanket.

Many in the live stream were criticizing the sisters’ handiwork, which was completely outshone by Lu Ke.

"Let’s see how tomorrow’s daytime temperature will be, I hope it doesn’t go straight into winter. We haven’t stocked up on enough firewood. If tomorrow’s temperature is still high, we need to build a shed to store firewood." Lu Yao frowned and said, thinking they’d need at least a hundred days before facing such severe weather.

They were truly unprepared for winter.

Not just them—the majority of teams hadn’t thoroughly prepared either.

"If the snow doesn’t melt tomorrow, how can we go out barefoot?" Wang Jin looked at her feet; without the firepit, they would have been frozen.

"Then we won’t go out, we’ll sew some gaiters to wear at night." Lu Yao took out some tanned fur from under the bed.

Besides the fur coats, they had two fur blankets, making them a group with relatively abundant fur. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Sister, shouldn’t we consider exchanging for a couple of army boots?" Wang Jin didn’t think gaiters were as effective, given how inconvenient the house was, she couldn’t walk barefoot in the snow.

"If we can avoid using points, we shouldn’t. It’s not a hundred days yet, and we don’t know what the future holds." Lu Yao dismissed Wang Jin’s suggestion; they still had a solution.

With two pairs of gaiters each person, they could still go out. Just change them when they get wet.

If tomorrow’s temperature doesn’t rise, they would enter winter, making hunting difficult, and hence, earning points even harder.

They didn’t have many points, they had accumulated only 297 so far.

Spending one point meant losing one point.

Moreover, a pair of military boots cost 40 points, quite expensive.

If it were for 10 points, Lu Yao might grit her teeth and exchange for them.

Many teams, like them, chose not to use points lightly, deciding to solve the shoe problem themselves.

Every team had accumulated quite a bit of fur; after all, nighttime cooling had persisted for a month. Not stocking on fur would be brainless.

However, some teams couldn’t tan the fur properly, making it as stiff as boards. The tanning technique wasn’t universally known and required specific learning.

Despite many people cramming survival knowledge and skills after signing up, many didn’t. They thought they wouldn’t get selected, merely following the crowd.

When they realized they were selected, it was too late to cram the knowledge.